How We Operate
by Pagetpagets
Summary: A short fic on how we operate as humans. Hotch and Prentiss, AU fic. Based off of the episode of "Grey's Anatomy" called 'Elevator Love Letter'.


_**A/N: So, this is for my good friend Kelsey, (KBrewster). After having long ass conversations about what not, she had mentioned that she wanted an AU fic of Hotchniss based off of the Grey's Anatomy episode entitled "Elevator Love Letter". Alas, this is what I came up with.**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own "Criminal Minds" or "Grey's Anatomy" or any of their characters.**_

_**Chapter One.**_

They had been dating for nearly a year when he proposed the first time. She had wanted to say yes, truly she did. But her heart wouldn't stop fluttering as those hazel eyes stared into her dark ones. She couldn't get the words out. Since then, he had asked two other times, both ending in the same result.

The first time, he had gotten down on his knees in the privacy of their apartment, thank god.

She had swallowed hard and cupped his cheek, reaching for his hands and pulling him back up to his full height. She could see his smile falter, the light in his eyes dull a bit. "Aaron…" She stroked his cheek and wet her lips, giving her head a tiny shake. "I… Now is not the time, I'm so sorry."

His heart thudded in his chest as his jaw fell open just slightly. "Emily-"

She shook her head and kissed the corner of his mouth, his jaw closing in response once she pulled away. "I'm just not ready to make such a big commitment, Aaron. I love you and I want to marry you, I do, but now is not the time. Not with JJ still suffering." She swallowed hard, "I love you, but I'm just…"

Just.

Emily exhaled slowly and closed her eyes for a brief moment, hoping he wouldn't hate her. She knew she had to be breaking his heart right now, but she just didn't know how much. The past few weeks have been hectic for the couple. With cases left and right, flying out to California, then back to DC, only to depart for Florida the very next day. Emily hadn't been getting much sleep lately, and that was all because of the recent events.

Just two weeks ago, on the California case, JJ had gotten trapped inside a burning building, their UNSUB stuck inside with her.

_Emily had ventured into the flames, against Hotch's orders. The firefighters hadn't even gone in. "It was too risky", they were saying. "The building's unstable." _

_That had done it for Emily. Her best friend was in there, probably already dead. While Hotch had taken to yelling at the local LEOs and the city's fire chief, Emily had gone inside, strapping on her bullet proof vest. She knew she'd hear it from Hotch back at home, but all she could think about was JJ. The blonde had been inside the building when the smoke began to rise. The team had managed to get out in time, but Emily had been the one to realize that one member was missing. JJ had gotten her foot caught in a hole in the floor and she was stuck, their UNSUB, Andy Anderson, inside the house with her. _

_Since that case, Emil had been taking care of her friend, helping her get back on stable ground and helping her fight the PTSD she was battling. When Emily had talked to Aaron that night in bed, JJ in the hospital, he had asked a question that had caught her so off-guard. He asked her if she had been scared. She hadn't even thought about it until that moment. _

_Obviously she had been worried for JJ and whether she would make it, but that was not fear. Hesitating for a few moments before she had answered, Emily had nodded, her chest aching from the day's events. "I wasn't at first." She had said slowly, her eyes flicking up to his as he pulled her into his chest, the two laying in the middle of his large bed. "But then once the entrance caved in… I felt the heat; I couldn't hear anything but my own heart beating, competing with the roar of the flames." She shook her head, her eyes watering as he had pulled her impossibly closer. He kissed her shoulder, her forehead, her nose. "I thought I would die too. And I would have, if you hadn't come after me." She had let out an even breath, a choked sob and then had rested her head into his neck. _

"_I love you, Emily. Always know that." He had kissed he cheek and the two had drifted off to sleep._

Nearly a month after the third proposal, (four months after the first proposal), Emily walked through the bull pen. Hotch was nowhere to be found, and nobody would tell her where he was. Emily sighed, shaking her head as she packed up her belongings, about to go on her lunch break. Penelope and JJ had told her that they'd both meet her in the parking garage.

So making her way to the elevators, she pressed in one of the buttons, waiting for the elevator shaft to rise. It dinged, David Rossi and JJ coming around the corner in a run. They blocked her pathway to the elevator and JJ stared at her with wide eyes, "Wait! Uh, No, Emily. You can't take that one."

"Why not?" Emily narrowed her eyes incredulously at her two friends; eyeing both of them carefully and trying to slip passed them.

Dave stepped forward and placed a hand on her shoulder. "I said don't take it." He tried to remain neutral and calm, trying to hide his features from Emily as she tightened her hold on her jacket. With a shrug, he eyed JJ and then glanced back down at Emily.

The brunette arched a perfectly manicured eyebrow and let out a breathless laugh. She sized him up and puffed out her chest, folding her arms against it, "I will take the elevator I want to take." She stepped to her left, only for him to step with her. She moved once to her right, this time both JJ and Rossi moving with her, blocking her exit. She furrowed her brow and sighed as the doors to the elevator closed shut. "What the hell, Dave?" She pushed past him and pressed the button for the elevator adjacent to them, pressing it three extra times, as if it would speed the elevator up. She could have already have left by now if it weren't for these two buffoons.

Taking a step back, she waited for the ding, signaling the second elevator's arrival. When neither Rossi, nor JJ made a move to block this one, she stared at them with a firm glare, eyeing them both. "Well, go on," He motioned her forward with a nod.

Unsure of the situation, dark eyes shifted from him to JJ. "What are you two planning?" She shook her head, "Never mind. I don't think I want to know, actually." The doors opened in front of her not even a moment later and her eyes widened as she saw Aaron Hotchner standing in the elevator.

"Come on in." He lifted his head up to hers and gave her a smile, the best he could manage with Dave and JJ still present.

Her lips slowly lifted into a grin and she felt herself moving forward, almost as if in a trance. "Aaron…" Dimples began to peek out and indent her cheeks as she stood in front of the man. "Hi."

He pulled out a flower from behind his back, a chocolate rose, and grinned back at her, the doors closing. "This is for you." He placed it in her soft hands and leaned in to give her a quick kiss on the cheek. He pulled back somewhat awkwardly and shrugged, giving Emily a moment to look over the metal walls of the elevator.

For the first time since Emily had walked into the shaft, she had noticed all of the colors hanging on the walls. Photographs aligned the walls, while an assortment of colorful sticky notes lined the others. Emily let out a soft gasp and turned back to him with a raised eyebrow, "What is all this?"

He smiled warmly at her and led her to the wall closest to the doors. He pressed the emergency stop button and the elevator stopped moving. "This is a picture from when you were back in college and I worked security detail for your mother." He pointed to one of the older photographs, glancing at her through his peripheral vision.

She took the photo from the wall and laughed, studying it as she remembered the exact moment the photo was snapped. She eyed him carefully before glancing back down at the photo. "Remember how much we hated each other?"

He chuckled and nodded, his arm coming around her waist and settling on the small of her back. "I do." He rested his chin on her head and smiled, pressing his lips to her hair as she moved on to the next photograph.

She wore a long gold dress, a matching gold semi-headdress pulling back her dark hair in a pretty fashion, while he sat across from her. They were in a field of grass, flowers surrounding them, a picnic basket beside them as they both seemed to be laughing. Emily smiled at the memory, remembering how he had attempted to ride one of the wild horses in order to impress her.

That hadn't ended too great. He had been thrown from its back and had tricked Emily into thinking that he had been seriously injured. Emily had run to him, her heels and dress catching on the tall grass as she rushed towards him. Once she had reached him, he had begun laughing, making her laugh in return. She had called him an idiot for even thinking of approaching the wild mustang.

Emily smiled wistfully, "You're still an idiot." She nuzzled his neck and he pulled her closer, kissing her cheek.

"But I'm your idiot, right?" She nodded, a grin spreading across her face.

Aaron tugged her along to the next thing. This one was not a photograph, but a small object. "Oh my god, you kept this this whole time?" She shook her head and un-taped the chain from the metallic wall. "Aaron, how did you-"

She shook her head and stared at the necklace, her dimples deepening. "I can't believe this." Her eyes began to sting with tears as he took her hands in his and nodded, holding the pendant up for her.

He rested it along his hand and smiled. "The pendant you gave me before I-"

"-Before you left," Emily finished, her eyes watching as the charm swung from the chain, "I made it out of pink Ivory wood that I had gotten in Africa." She smiled, a breathless laugh bubbling in her. "I carved it and gave it to you for good luck and good fortune." He nodded and slowly unclasped the chain. She lifted up her hair and he clasped it around her neck, leaving a trail of kisses down her collar.

The pendant was pure, and perfect, and creamy-white, hanging now right between Emily's breasts. "Beautiful." He mused, his hazel eyes meeting her glistening, chocolaty-brown ones. He reached for his hand and he tugged her along, turning her so she now faced the walls of sticky notes.

She hadn't noticed until now that the sticky notes were arranged to form words, taking up the whole wall. She took a small step back, admiring the image it created. "Oh, Aaron. How long did this take you?" In front of her, the sticky notes were in lines, spelling out something.

Aaron shrugged and gave her shoulder a small squeeze before he read out the words as Emily thought them silently. "You are my person." He kissed her nose. "From that moment when you made me binge-watch Grey's Anatomy with you, you became my person." He pushed her hair behind her ear, making her giggle at the contact. He grinned widely.

"And this right here," He shifted her to face the last wall, pointing at a playbill. "Was our first date, when we stayed that extra night in New York City after that case." He grinned widely, his own dimples appearing. "You made me take you to see Mamma Mia on Broadway, and after that, we walked the whole way to Central Park, the whole way, you complained about your feet hurting from your shoes." She blushed a soft scarlet and exploded into laughter.

"Yeah, that was fun." She eyed him cheekily and shook her head, "And then when I dropped the last half of my giant black and white cookie, I made you buy me another one."

He smirked at that memory and nodded, "I knew there was something I was forgetting." He grinned widely and she looked ahead at the next thing hanging on the wall.

"A picture of the Quran?" She raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms in confusion.

He nodded, "Your first case." He paused for a moment and stared at the writing. "You were able to translate it so easily." He nodded, turning serious for a moment, "That's when I knew you were going to make an incredible agent." He watched as the corners of her lips arched upwards in a smile again.

The second to last picture on the wall was of him and Emily, with Jack sitting right between them on the sofa in his living room. "And this was after Foyet had taken Haley from me…" He swallowed hard, the memories still so real in his mind. He pushed them aside and nodded at Emily. "That's when I knew I needed you." He took in a slow breath as she turned to him. He shook his head and swallowed the lump in his throat while Emily blinked back tears.

"And this is today." He glanced at the items with her, the first of the two was a drawing Jack had done of the three of them just the night before. All three were standing and holding hands. The final item was a ring. Nothing too fancy, but it still had a diamond in it. Emily gasped softly as he un-taped it from the elevator's wall.

"You told me I needed to be human. You were there for Jack and me." He closed his eyes for a brief moment and nodded, opening them back up and taking a step closer to her. "You make my son happy, Emily." She began to pick at her nails and he took ahold of her hands, ceasing the movements.

"You know when you told me that Tommy was never alone? You make the rest of us feel that way. Because of you, you brought me back from the dark." He exhaled slowly and gave her hands a squeeze. "You get us to move forward… because you've seen worse; you've survived worse. And you know we'll survive too." He released her hands.

Her heart thudded against her ribcage as he paused, his deep hazels on her midnight brown ones. "You say you're broken…" She blushed at that while he continued, "You're not broken, Emily. It's how we operate." He shook his head, "You say you're all dark and twisty… That's not a flaw." He nodded once, his voice softening as his eyes did too, "It's a strength, and it makes you who you are. It makes me love you even more."

"So I'm not going to get down on one knee if you don't want me to. But I will ask you a question." He wet his lips and watched as she chewed her lip, tears threatening to spill over in her eyes. "I love you, Emily Katherine Prentiss. And I want to spend the rest of my life with you. "

She wiped at her eyes and nodded, stepping just a bit closer. Her voice was hoarse and raspy as she choked out a reply. "And I want to spend the rest of my life with you." His grin returned at full force. Aaron slowly closed the gap between them and their lips met in a passionate kiss, his hand tangling in her long dark locks as he pressed her back against the elevator walls. She pulled back when oxygen became a necessity. "I love you, Aaron Hotchner."

She had been so caught up in kissing him back that she hadn't even heard or seen him press the button for the elevator to continue its descend to the parking garage. The doors opened with a ding and the two brunettes were greeted with cheering and clapping from the team. Aaron slid the ring on Emily's finger and watched as she grinned like he had never seen before. This was the start of something beautiful: something whole and new. A life with Emily Prentiss. Forever.

_**A/N: Wow, so that was fun. Um, there were specific items I had gathered for this fic, so, if any of these seem familiar that would be why! Thanks for reading and please leave a review.**_

_**Kelsey, I hope you enjoyed this and this lived up to your expectations!**_

_**-Emily.**_


End file.
